Members of the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency, U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, Bangor Police Department and the Bangor special response team execute search warrants in the area of 100 Ohio St. on Nov. 3, 2011, after a drug investigation.

BANGOR, Maine — A New York City man arrested last month in connection with a Bangor-based crack cocaine ring pleaded not guilty Tuesday in U.S. District Court.

Manuel Trinidad-Acosta, 27, is charged with conspiracy to distribute cocaine and possession of a firearm during a drug crime.

Trinidad-Acosta is one of nearly 20 people arrested so far in connection with the cocaine ring.

He and co-defendant Jacob “Pinky” Garcia, 21, were living on Ohio Street when Maine and federal drug agents and the Bangor Police Department’s special response team conducted a raid using tear gas at their apartments in neighboring Ohio Street buildings.

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The two are listed in federal documents as “members of the Dominican drug trafficking organization” that imported and sold “significant quantities of cocaine and cocaine base” in the Bangor area, according to documents filed in federal court by a special agent with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

A Garland Street apartment where officers on Thursday night seized a pound of crack cocaine worth about $50,000, a 9 mm handgun and three magazines of ammunition, was leased by Trinidad-Acosta.

The affidavit was used to obtain the search warrants authorizing the raid on the two Ohio Street apartments.